About National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA):
- It is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
- It was established in 2006 under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.
- Objectives:
- Providing statutory authority to Project Tiger so that compliance with its directives becomes legal.
- Fostering accountability of Center-State in management of Tiger Reserves by providing a basis for MoU with States within the federal structure.
- Providing for an oversight by Parliament.
- Addressing livelihood interests of local people in areas surrounding Tiger Reserves.
- NTCA Members:
- Minister in charge of MoEFCC (as Chairperson),
- Minister of State in MoEFCC (as Vice-Chairperson),
- three members of Parliament, the Secretary (MoEFCC), and other members.
Powers and Functions of NTCA
The following are the powers and functions of the National Tiger Conservation Authority as prescribed under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006:
- to approve the State Government’s tiger conservation plan prepared under Section 38 O (1) (a) of this Act;
- evaluate and assess various aspects of sustainable ecology and prohibit any ecologically unsustainable land use within tiger reserves such as mining, industry, and other projects;
- establish normative standards for tourism activities and project tiger guidelines regularly for tiger conservation in the buffer and core areas of tiger reserves, and ensure their observance;
- in the working plan code, provide for management focus and measures for addressing conflicts between men and wild animals, and emphasize coexistence in forest areas outside of National Parks, sanctuaries, or tiger reserves;
- provide information on protection measures such as future conservation plans, population estimates of tigers and their natural prey species, habitat status, disease surveillance, mortality surveys, patrolling, reports on unusual events, and any other management aspects that it deems appropriate, including future conservation plans;
- approve, coordinate, and evaluate research and monitoring on tigers, co-predators, prey habitat, and related ecological and socio-economic parameters;
- ensure that tiger reserves and areas connecting one protected area or tiger reserve to another are not diverted for ecologically unsustainable uses, except in the public interest and with the approval of the National Board for Wild Life and on the advice of the Tiger Conservation Authority;
- facilitate and support the management of tiger reserves in the state for biodiversity conservation initiatives through eco-development and public participation under approved management plans, and support similar initiatives in neighboring areas by Central and State laws;
- ensure critical support, including scientific, information technology, and legal assistance, for better tiger conservation plan implementation;
- facilitate an ongoing capacity-building program for the skill development of tiger reserve officers and staff, and
- perform any other functions that may be required to carry out the purposes of this Act concerning tigers and their habitat conservation
Project Tiger
- Project Tiger is an ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change providing central assistance to the tiger States for tiger conservation in designated tiger reserves.
- India now has as many as 2,967 tigers in the wild, with more than half of them in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, according to the latest tiger estimation report for 2018.
- The population of tigers has increased by 33% since the last census in 2014 when the total estimate was 2,226.
